first service due/ 1000km impressions...

[Guest lawrenceofsuburbia]

1000km service now due…
 
Now at 1048km, trouble-free. Today’s ride was in balmy sunshine, top 31°C (88°F) on this mid-autumn public holiday for the almost-holy Anzac Day.
 
Today’s country ride – a favourite circuit of mine – covered 411km. The first leg was 192km and took 2 hours 19 minutes (handy feature, this time-elapsed trip!). Second leg – different route home but similar roads – 215km and 2 hours 42 minutes, with a minute or two off the bike to snap a cuppla pix (see below).
 
Having tweaked the suspension and slightly re-shaped the seat I was anxious to see if any improvements were evident: in a nutshell, they weren’t!
 
The UK motorcycling journalist who wrote that the suspension on a Tracer felt like it was being ridden down a flight of steps may not have been far from the truth! I find it very poor: worse, the choppiness makes it hard to maintain smooth throttle control if the road surface going into bends, roundabouts, and the like is not near-perfect. This is where good throttle control is at a premium, but with limbs being thrown around it’s hard to achieve!
 
The seat remains hard and uncomfortable too – as always, IMHO and as ever YMMV. About a 500km day on the Tracer as it is would be enough for me, with say two brief stops for fuel, etc.
 
I have to say that although I’ll continue working on these two let-down points I feel that the bike is still something of a work-in-progress. It’s a pity, as I like, or even like very much, most other aspects and features of the Tracer.
 
But a bright spot: received my first [em]“nice bike, mate!”[/em] today while stopped for a coffee, this from a stripling lad of about twelve years or so. Pleasing!
 
Pic below shows the Tracer in its natural habitat.
 
Lawrence of Suburbia (‘39 model)
[em]Brisbane
Queensland
Australia
 
2015 Matte Grey Tracer – now at 1048 km[/em]
http://i.imgur.com/HUTpXdx.jpg
 

[deersSlayer]

The UK motorcycling journalist who wrote that the suspension on a Tracer felt like it was being ridden down a flight of steps may not have been far from the truth! I find it very poor: worse, the choppiness makes it hard to maintain smooth throttle control if the road surface going into bends, roundabouts, and the like is not near-perfect. This is where good throttle control is at a premium, but with limbs being thrown around it’s hard to achieve!

IMHO, it's just that the compression damping is quite firm. Find someone locally who specializes in suspension work, ask them about putting lighter weight oil in the forks (or maybe it's just the one fork? Is the compression damping only on the non-adjustable fork? Not sure...)
Can't do that as easily with the rear shock, not sure if it is serviceable/rebuildable at all?
I'll likely get an Elka stage 5 rear spring/shock in 2 or 3 years (I'm Canadian, they're made here, good deal!) For the front I'll first try different weight oil, or maybe Elka will have a valving change. I'd like to go the Traxxion fully adjustable forks route, but I would want to send them the forks, and that's very expensive for Canadians (US - Cdn exchange rate sucks now.)
 

[jimf]

The UK motorcycling journalist who wrote that the suspension on a Tracer felt like it was being ridden down a flight of steps may not have been far from the truth! I find it very poor: worse, the choppiness makes it hard to maintain smooth throttle control if the road surface going into bends, roundabouts, and the like is not near-perfect. This is where good throttle control is at a premium, but with limbs being thrown around it’s hard to achieve!

If the roads get at all bumpy I flip it into B mode.  The softer initial throttle response makes a huge difference when navigating the bumps, and on a road like that you're not going to miss the power. 
I concur about the ride, there's too much compression damping.  I've not even tried to touch the suspension yet, and I've not tried to ride it really hard yet either other than a few miles of fairly beat-up dirt road (bottomed the fork twice in that, rear did ok), but for day-to-day riding the rebound damping appears sufficient.  It's actually the best out-of-the-box suspension of any of the Japanese bikes I've ever owned, but admittedly that is a really low bar.
 
 

[santacruz]

I haven't experienced any of the problems you have had,lawrence,ive certainly never had my limbs thrown around,entering bends,or roundabouts,and i haven't seen one bad review on the tracer in the uk press.

[wessie]

I haven't experienced any of the problems you have had,lawrence,ive certainly never had my limbs thrown around,entering bends,or roundabouts,and i haven't seen one bad review on the tracer in the uk press.

Same here. I think the stock suspension is perfectly adequate. My ride today included a section on single track roads with grass growing down the middle. I rode in A mode in 3rd gear at around 50mph for parts of it.  
I think my 200lb weight may have something to do with it. I have to try really hard to provoke the bike to get out of shape. It happened today just after hitting the rev limiter in 3rd and opening the throttle in 4th. The bike shook its head but not enough for me to be wanting a steering damper but the speed was well over the ton in mph. I just laughed and carried on accelerating until a car came into view when the fun stopped.
 
The bike seems quite calm on bumpy surfaces, even those roundabouts with a rippled surface from the actions of trucks.
 
I think we are either more tolerant or get different bikes delivered to us in the UK...

[Guest lawrenceofsuburbia]

I haven't experienced any of the problems you have had,lawrence,ive certainly never had my limbs thrown around,entering bends,or roundabouts,and i haven't seen one bad review on the tracer in the uk press.

Thank God, we are all different!
I have always kept a loose and generally relaxed hold on the grips on any bike I've owned, and do so on the Tracer, yet do find that the bumpiness at times translates into a jerky throttle hand, as described, as my right arm flips up and down.   Others here have described similar....
The mag I referred to was (I think - I didn't buy it: too expensive here!) [em]'Adventure Bike'[/em], or something similar.   For the record, I didn't say that the reviewer gave a 'bad' review, but he did have harsh things to say about the seat (like an oak church pew) and suspension (like riding down a flight of steps).   Otherwise, IIRC, it was pretty positive.   Which is precisely my view of the bike - an excellent package all-round but badly let-down IMHO by crap suspensionand hard uncomfortable seat - for me!
The harsh-feeling suspension may have a little to do with my fairly light weight - 80kg with all gear on (wessie is somewhat heavier at his claimed 200lb = 91kg).   I recall reading once that manufacturers tend to work around an assumed rider weight of ~85kg when establishing suspension parameters.
I shall keep working on these points, as in other respects the bike will suit me very well.   Why - I even find the stock screen to be perfectly OK!
L of S
 
 
 
 
 

[rumbooblivion]

 

Thank God, we are all different!
I have always kept a loose and generally relaxed hold on the grips on any bike I've owned, and do so on the Tracer, yet do find that the bumpiness at times translates into a jerky throttle hand, as described, as my right arm flips up and down.   Others here have described similar....
The mag I referred to was (I think - I didn't buy it: too expensive here!) [em]'Adventure Bike'[/em], or something similar.   For the record, I didn't say that the reviewer gave a 'bad' review, but he did have harsh things to say about the seat (like an oak church pew) and suspension (like riding down a flight of steps).   Otherwise, IIRC, it was pretty positive.   Which is precisely my view of the bike - an excellent package all-round but badly let-down IMHO by crap suspensionand hard uncomfortable seat - for me!
The harsh-feeling suspension may have a little to do with my fairly light weight - 80kg with all gear on (wessie is somewhat heavier at his claimed 200lb = 91kg).   I recall reading once that manufacturers tend to work around an assumed rider weight of ~85kg when establishing suspension parameters.
I shall keep working on these points, as in other respects the bike will suit me very well.   Why - I even find the stock screen to be perfectly OK!
L of S

Thanks for the great comments LOS ... I'm considering this bike, good to see different perspectives and accurate insight. Cheers,patrick
San Rafael, CA
 
 
 
 

[yamahafjrider]

The suspension was a little stiff for me. Took out some of the preload forks and shock, this helped me a lot. 
 
Kurt

[cobby7]

LoS what did you do to your suspension? I found it harsh too, I'm 70kg. I found by adding 60kg to the rear of the bike (she doesn't like being called that though) it really smoothed the ride out. A lot less harsh and I had a lot more confidence in bumpy corners.
 
I checked the sag on stock suspension settings and front was 45mm which I thought was about right (30%) rear was 22mm! With the weight of a pillion it increased to about 50mm.
 
Working on the theory of if you add weight you should add preload, I've since backed off all the preload in the hope of achieving a similar ride when 1 up . However I think I still only achieved 35mm sag on the rear (wanted around 45).
 
Havent ridden with that setting yet but hope to this week.

[Tracerforme]

Hi Lawrence,
well done for achieving your first service!
That's 1000kms more than me!
What did you do to your seat specifically? Did you remove the staples and cut/add in some extra foam? Then re staple it?
Will you write up your how to?
 
Keep us informed of your progress & continued riding & suspension improvements reports!
Did you notice the pricing of the BM? Starting from......
Yeah, would you like to bend over.....
 
I think you chose wisely! Ok, suspension, screen & seat is cheap, so what. Imagine spending 25K and still have to sort things out?
Enjoy what you have, not you what you'd like!
Cheers,
Steve

[wessie]

Sounds like you need to eat more pies, LoS. Or do like I did with my first car, a Ford Capri: stick a bag of sand in the boot!

[johan]

Sounds like you need to eat more pies, LoS. Or do like I did with my first car, a Ford Capri: stick a bag of sand in the boot!

So I guessed right, you had a Capri. Was it yellow? Did you get the Capri Perana in Team Gunston colours in the UK?

[wessie]

Sounds like you need to eat more pies, LoS. Or do like I did with my first car, a Ford Capri: stick a bag of sand in the boot!

So I guessed right, you had a Capri. Was it yellow? Did you get the Capri Perana in Team Gunston colours in the UK?

No, it was a red one in poverty spec and a 1300cc engine. I cost me £350 and £100 to insure. In 1982.  
It snapped in 2 eventually, after the MoT man wrote it off. The scrap man lifted the front end to drag it onto his truck and the doors buckled as the chassis rails snapped!
 
I had the engine put into a mk1 Escort next, that was a light blue one. Kept getting stopped by the police as it transpired the previous owner was a petty criminal. They were always disappointed when they didn't find a boot full of stolen car radios and that I had an insurance certificate.
 
Need any more details of my car history or can you wait until we are in a French bar in June? 

[Guest lawrenceofsuburbia]

Hi Steve. I gave a recent fairly detailed and illustrated account of the seat mods here. Sadly, there was little to no improvement! Having been away for several days I have had a chance to give a lot of (hopefully) clearer thought to the seat question: I'm going to buy a gel pad and have my local upholsterer cut out some foam to accommodate the pad then re-staple the seat cover. I'll keep you posted. Suspension mods are still a work in progress... ditto the above to-be updates!
L of S
 

[Guest lawrenceofsuburbia]

Sounds like you need to eat more pies, LoS. Or do like I did with my first car, a Ford Capri: stick a bag of sand in the boot!

I recall that I had a new Hillmam Imp car in the UK in the late-ish 60s.   Had to put a bag of cement in the (front) boot to keep the wheels flat and avoid premature wearing of the tyres! Nothing in life is perfect! L